John Degenkolb wins second stage, Edvald Boasson retains his overall lead in 2011 Bayern-Rundfahrt
HTC-highroad team’s John Degenkolb won the second mass sprint in 2011 Bayern-Rundfahrt between Freystadt to Bad Gogging on Thursday, May 26.
HTC-Highroad team kept the race under control in the closing kilometres and the 22-year-old, John took a total of 5 hours, 10 minutes and 3 seconds to cover the distance of 206.5 kilometres.
Marcel Kittel of Skil-Shimano was in second place with the same timing of Degenkolb. The first stage winner Edvald Boasson Hagen of Sky grabbed the third place while Roger Kluge finished fourth. A total of 99 riders crossed the finish-line with the same
timing of Kittel.
After winning the stage, John told the media, “I am overjoyed and give a 100 percent thank-you on my teammates, who rode fantastically. After Frankfurt, this is my biggest win, because the top names are at the start and that makes a win so highly rated.”
Recently, John won the second stage of Volta Algrave and first stage of Dredaagse van West-Vlaanderen. He also grabbed 2nd place in U-23 Road Race UCI road world championship in 2010.
The two riders Serge Pauwels and Michael Rogers of Sky team didn’t take part in this stage due to stomach problem.
With 20 kilometres to go, the group of three riders including, NSP rider Markus Eichler, Gatis Smukulis of HTC-Highroad and Matthias Bertling of Team Eddy Merckx Indeland got away.
All of them built a lead of 8 minutes and 30 seconds. Eichler became the race leader on the road, but after few kilometres he was caught by the peloton and other two cyclist took lead.
Eichler made his speed on the road and took the second sprint ahead of Mathias. Smukulis attacked again and gained advantage of one minutes.
In the third sprint, Thomas Voeckler and Dimitri Claeys attacked the peloton. Both of them worked together and easily caught Smukulis. However, the two cyclists were caught by the John Degenkolb and he took the mass sprint ahead of the other cyclists.
The Directeur Sportif, Jan Schaffrath, said, “It's a great victory for John, just in his first year as a pro. And to take a stage win in Germany's biggest stage race is very important for a local rider.”
Edvald Boasson maintained his overall lead with the timing of 10 hours, 30 minutes and 15 seconds. The stage winner, John was runner-up with 4 seconds and Marcel Kittel finished third 8 seconds behind Edvald.
The next stage will start in Bad Gögging and end in Aichach. All the riders will cover the distance of 180.8 kilometres.
Tags: